Jobs

This past week, jobless claims in the U.S. soared as they always do after the holiday season. For the week ending Jan. 10th, initial jobless claims were 524,000, up 54,000 from the prior week. However, this figure is completely distorted…

If you recall, last month the figure was quoted at 533,000 jobs lost in November and unemployment came in at 6.7% (now revised up to 6.8%), up from 6.5% in October. The consensus estimate for December, according to Bloomberg was for 7.0%…

Jobless claims fell yet again last week to 467,000. And on the surface this would be comforting. However, the data are marred by seasonal adjustments. The actual non-adjusted data tell a completely different picture of a deteriorating…

ADP, the payroll data company, has shown that the United States is going to see an even larger loss of jobs in December than we saw in November when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its figures this Friday. The number ADP put out is…

It was nice to see a sub 500,000 jobless claims number to end the year after an ugly November and December. However, should note that the fine print is not as good because this number was completely dominated by seasonal adjustments. The…

On Wednesday morning the U.S. Department of Labor released the latest report on claims for unemployment insurance. The week to December 20th saw 586,000 new claims for unemployment insurance on a seasonally-adjusted basis, which is a…

The U.S. Department of Labor reported a fall from a revised 575,000 jobless claims don to a still very elevated 554,000 this past week. On the whole these numbers demonstrate that many jobs are being lost and that the December unemployment…

Weekly jobless claims rose in the U.S. to the highest level since 1982, signaling a further deterioration in the U.S. employment market. The seasonally-adjusted number for initial claims was 573,000 while the real number was an eye-popping…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics just released this month's unemployment report and the data were grim.  The unemployment rate rose to 6.7%, while the economy shed 533,000 jobs - the largest decline since 1974.  The result was widely expected…

U.S. Jobless claims are out again and the data are mixed. The past week saw a drop in seasonally-adjusted claims from 530,000 to 509,000. Meanwhile, continuing claims rose on a seasonally-adjusted basis from 3,962,000 to 4,087,000. While…